 |
Maybe
we would like the trick to be revealed, the happy ending to hurry
on, the actors playing themselves as thousands of missing souls
stepping out of the silent shrines winking, saying it was all
a joke, to get everybody scared like in "The Day After Tomorrow.”
But they're not going to. This is "the" reality TV show,
this is "Big Brother's" bad daddy turning up to blow
gale force winds devoid of any answers, pregnant only with mystery
and pain and begging the question: what's up with the world?
"State
of Wonder" is the title of a1984 masterpiece, shot in
Ireland in 13 days, with a budget the size of Frankenstein’s
pinky finger. In film books, this film masquerades as the poorly-distributed
brave experiment
|
of a debutante, the South American writer-director Martin
Donovan, later cult author of "Apartment Zero.”
"State of Wonder" is the epitome of an underground film:
it now lives only in the vault of a German bank (the negative,
the rights, the potential) held ransom against a 20 year old bankruptcy
filing imposed upon a private company who had fronted production
money. The price to buy it back? Over 4 million dollars.
"State
of Wonder" is also about Michael Moore and what has been
bubbling up from underwater in the United States after the first
four years lost in the bushes. Orgs, Cultural Creatives, collectives,
MoveOn.org. An awakening. There is even talk of christening a
new official Hollywood genre: "spiritual cinema.” Maybe
genres are not the answer, but there is a collective will, a Zen-like
subconscious dreaming of waking up and not wetting its pants.
All of this has - it's ACT II - added up to nothing that could
convince Midwestern American farmers to opt out of the current
vector of bellicosity, which makes "Dr. Strangelove"
today feel like a documentary. On the one side "the good
guys,” on the other "the bad guys,” which is
unusual. Hollywood couldn't sell a single bag of pop-corn if it
wasn't clear who was who in the oldest gimmick of all, that someone
is actually right or wrong.
In the game
of real life it's a matter of POV, of opinion, of personal experience.
If your daddy hands you down the family fortune, the world will
have the soft satin look-and-feel of rock solid American Express
Platinum cards. If both your arms exploded off your body with
your mother and your sister too, and you are a 7 year old, your
POV might be different. If you're peddling badly-cut crack or
Malaysian-made Nikes in South Central L.A., your world has dimensions
that not even the hood or the corrupt L.A. cops will care to see
through. You may be the hundredth obese Chinese person, or you
just ordered a custom-made Humvee, gee, there's something to look
forward too. You got your POV, it's your lens on life. You see
what you can and you dream the rest. If you can't get any rest,
you drink more coffee, adrenaline is always in. Slow is out, like
Tarkovsky, or Antonioni and so many other forgotten filmmakers
(who?). A POV works better with a voice, and a vision. So many
films are just not titillating enough for the teenage market,
even if repackaged as DVD's on discount sale in Supermarkets or
Gas Stations anywhere. You can buy "Dude Where is my Car"
in Siberia, but try and find "Woman Under the Influence"
in Los Angeles, or a black and white movie in Vegas.
A state of
wonder. If there is a story out in the internet, in the phony
appearance of stars, in the ripping solitude of teenagers surrounded
by neon voids front and back - if there is a story, it's for you
only to see. What story do you see? Are you in it? Tune into the
visual/audio frequencies that will feed and nurture your Self,
rather than being lulled by the spin-meisters and the salesmen
of "cool" to trade your time, your love, your special
fantastic cocoon of You, in exchange for the buzzing promise that
one day you will earn a reward. White lies, promises of peace
of mind - the weapons of salesmen and con-men. To tune them out
and yourself in is not an easy gig, and I don't have the solution
handy. I am simply a filmmaker, a writer, an actor focusing on
what's happening now, in a state of wonder. It will take work
to make the next story into a film.
Daniel
A. <d@cinemahead.com>
is a filmmaker who recently published a book
called A Cinemahead in Varmland,
in which he forgets
to explain how and why he pushed the eject button over Hollywood.
This article is © 2005 by Cinemahead, but permission is granted
for reprint in print or web media with this credit is attached.
|
